


Running With Giants

by squidlykitty



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Crossover, Gen, based on the 90s X-Men run because that's what I read I'm sorry, happy fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 15:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15488937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squidlykitty/pseuds/squidlykitty
Summary: The X-Men are used to fighting for a world that hates and fears them, recruiting and saving fellow mutants to their cause whenever they can.  But what of Japan, where the rate of mutation has exceeded 80% of the population?   There, people are celebrated for their "quirks" and society has changed to accept them as a common part of reality.  It certainly took some getting used to.The X-Men visit Japan's esteemed UA High to learn more about the superhuman society they have built there and to guest lecture the students about conditions in America.  But while they are there, they learn that some old enemies have gained a foothold in this seeming mutant paradise.  Can the pro-heroes band together to defeat this threat?  Is there any worse way to communicate than through Google Translate? Will Midoriya Izuku ever get his autographs?  Find out in this fanfic!A lighthearted, multichapter fic combining two of my favorite worlds!





	Running With Giants

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone! This is meant to be a sort of silly, light-hearted fanfic, written because its the kind of thing that I wanted to read! I'm ace, so there's probably not going to be a lot of overt romance - I hope that's okay! 
> 
> Shout out to my friendos Dontacronus, Kaa-chan, and Charlie for being real MVPs and betaing for me.

Kurt Wagner hated airplanes.

Well, that wasn't quite right.

Kurt Wagner actually loved airplanes.  He loved to work on them, getting his hands dirty with the grit and sweat of an afternoon's hard work.  He loved the satisfaction of hearing them run better than ever before after he closed the hatch on the day's work.  He loved to fly them, regardless of whether he was jetting along at full speed, completing dangerous aerial maneuvers, or whether he was just cruising along at altitude, slipping through the clouds in the strange serenity of flight, far above any of the normal cares of the world. 

To be specific he loved HIS airplane, the Blackbird, a gorgeous machine that was all gleaming black plating, sharp edges, and speed.  He loved the look of awe and bewilderment that always passed over the students’ faces the first time they saw it and the light that came into their eyes the first time they realized that they would have a chance to ride in it too.  And who wouldn't be delighted? After all, the Blackbird was a beautiful, efficient machine, boasting an incredibly high fuel economy as well as speed, fully equipped to deal with all kinds of situations - including diplomatic missions to new countries to scout for potential X-Men and to touch base with the supers who reside there.

You know, with how comfortable, well-equipped, and advanced his beautiful Blackbird was, Kurt would have really liked someone to explain to him why he was at this very moment flying commercial instead.  On an ancient, rundown Boeing 737 that looked like it hadn't seen the inside of a mechanic's hanger in at least three years. In coach. In an  _ aisle _ seat in coach.  Right next to a small child who had immediately burst into tears at the sight of him, prompting far too many curious eyes to zero in on him for his liking.  He flashed the kid's mother an apologetic smile and sank down a little further into his seat, avoiding looking at any of his fellow passengers and wishing very strongly at this particular moment that he had been born with the young Shadowcat's phasing power instead of his own teleportation.  Or at least a slightly less useless ability to become nearly invisible in the light as well as the dark. But, no. He had been born with his power of teleportation, along with the secondary mutations that plagued him still - three fingered hands and feet, a coat of velvety midnight blue fur, a prehensile tail, and yellow eyes that came together to present a rather classical, if blue, vision of Christianity's demons.

He wished, for a moment, that he had brought along his image inducer that had served him so well in the past by giving him a more human look, but he had promised himself that he would be ashamed of his demonic looks no longer and besides. . . He had broken it on his last mission anyway when he had taken an accidental dive into the ocean.  He was just going to have to deal with it. 

A glance over at his traveling companion confirmed that Logan was giving him the Look again.  It was a rare one, but it was one that seemed to be popping up more and more now that Logan had decided to help teach some of the students that came through Xavier's.  It was the look that said he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to give you a hug or punch you and he was feeling a little bit annoyed about the hugging part. It was a little touching to see it directed at him rather than some wayward teenager, but concern never looked quite right on Logan's face. 

"You doing okay, elf?"  the friend in question asked, eyebrows furrowing a bit deeper.

Kurt gave him a noncommittal noise and did his best to sit up a bit straighter,  He was an X-Man, after all. A hero! He needed to stop letting it get to him. "Ahh, you know," he replied with a toothy smile, waving off his friend's concern.  "I just hate these stupid commercial airplanes is all! I don't understand why we have to waste our time in these horrid sky busses. The food is terrible, the seats are uncomfortable - especially when you have to sit on your tail, mind you - and they are so.  Very. Slowwwwwwwwwwwwww!" He whined, pulling his ears down in a show of childish frustration. 

Wolverine paused before responding, a raised eyebrow telling Kurt that he knew exactly what the teleporter was trying to do but he was going to let it slide this time.  "Professor wants to make a good impression." He grumbled, crossing his arms. "Said that having an unregistered jet carrying a bunch of visitors of questionable legal status into the country didn't look very good."

"Ah.  Well."  Kurt grimaced at that. "I suppose he has a point there.  But he could have  _ at least _ sprung for better tickets.  It's not like he's hurting for money, after all, and my tail is just _ killing me _ in these seats!"  

Logan snorted.  "You're getting spoiled, elf.  You're a long way from that hell hole we found you in, you know." 

Kurt managed a real grin at that.  "Maybe a little. But can you blame me?  The school really has spoiled me! Besides, if we had taken the Bird we could have been there and back three times already!  Maybe even four." 

Logan rolled his eyes. "I swear to God, elf, if you start asking me if we’re there yet I'm going to make you teleport yourself the rest of the way there just so I don't have to listen to you any more."  He growled, but there was no real venom in it. He reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a manilla folder, lazily tossing it into his companion's lap. "If you're just going to complain, why don't you read the dossier?  Do something useful with your time."

Kurt picked up the dossier, suppressing a small huff of indignation.  "Like you're one to talk." he mumbled as he began to flip through the pages.  "I bet you've never actually looked at one of these things in your life. Don't know why they keep giving them to you."  The document mostly contained information on the unique hero culture in Japan, something Kurt found infinitely fascinating.  Here, mutants were employed by the government to help suppress crime and generally use their powers (or "quirks" as they were called here) to help the populace.  It was a culture that recognized and admired the utility of mutations, rather than reacting with fear and xenophobia like at home in the States. He wondered if it had to do with the fact that almost 80% of the Japanese population had developed the X-gene at this point, or maybe it was just the general Japanese love of utility and national pride.  Either way, he couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. If he had been born in Japan rather than Germany, well, maybe. . . He squashed down the thought, turning his attention back to the dossier while Logan continued to ignore him. A small, slightly evil thought crossed his mind and he turned to give Logan his most wicked of grins. "You know. . . If she knew you didn't read these, Jean would be disappointed."

"KURT." Logan barked, sitting ramrod straight and pulling such a face that Kurt couldn't help but dissolve into helpless peals of laughter.  Well, if he had to be stuck on one of these stupid, slow, uncomfortable planes. . . At least he had some good company along for the ride.

\-----

Izuku Midoriya sat alone in his dorm room, boredom plastered all over his face as he browsed the hero message boards.  He'd been here for hours, reading and rereading the latest news posts and at this point it was all just making him feel a little sick.  He knew he should stop torturing himself by continually refreshing the same websites and go out and do something productive - or at the very least put away his desk chair and do an air chair squat instead if he insisted on wasting his time like this.  But it was honestly hard to find the energy. The message boards and news sites had all been lighting up lately with speculation about a new world post-All Might. There was a gross amount of criticism, calling All Might a liar for having protected his secret for this long.  Some people were even saying that maybe his past heroics had all been fake as well. Without the protection of the Symbol of Peace, petty crime was on the rise as well, villainous acts committed with impunity in broad daylight, afraid no longer of falling beneath the watchful eye of All Might.  Massive amounts of in-fighting between the heroes, each one seeking to solidify their claim as the new Number One Hero. Even Endeavor, the Number One Apparent, was acting more aggressive than usual lately. The void left by the former top hero seemed to be warping society around itself. A dark sort of anxiety was settling in the pit of Izuku's stomach, clawing its way up to his heart. 

_ A momentary flash of memory, an emaciated arm pointing directly towards him.  Heavy words like stones dropping straight to the bottom of Izuku’s stomach. “Next, it’s your turn.” _

He swallowed hard and shook his head to clear the memory from his thoughts. He really needed to get out of here.  He was just reaching for the button to turn off his monitor when a twitter notification flashed in the corner of his screen.  An update from @shadowsnap, the American Hero fanblog that specialized in taking candids of the X-Men and other American super hero teams.  He used to follow them obsessively, since information about the semi-illegal group was incredibly hard to come by, especially information that wasn’t tainted by the pervasive American quirk-fear that colored almost all news from that country. It was a bit of a weird account, and sometimes it was really hard to understand their posts through Twitter's translation algorithms, but between the photos and the English he learned in Middle School he could mostly make out what it was that they were trying to say. Somehow, they always managed to get these really amazing close up shots of American pro-heroes that made him wonder if snadowsnap might actually know some of them personally, or at least be involved with them in some way.  At any rate, their spartan personal bio - "Clandestine photog. Walking through walls is easier than getting these photos - you're welcome!" - didn't exactly give him much to go on and the owner of the account wasn't one for selfies or personal information - at least not that he could tell. 

They hadn't updated in a very long time though, having gone dark after a rather vague post about starting a new school.  He wondered what had made them update after all this time? Curious, he clicked over to the link and nearly sent his hand through the desk in surprise when he saw the image they had posted.  It was a simple enough shot, taken from inside of a commercial airline, capturing two members of the X-Men arguing in their seats. But it wasn't really the image that caught his attention so much as the Twitter-translated caption - "Who caught me on my way to Tokyo?  Is X-Men doing something? Or is it just a vacation? Please stay close by!"

It set his heart to racing and his face to hurting from the bright grin he couldn't quite contain.  The X-Men were coming to Tokyo?! He couldn't believe it! Tokyo Narita airport was so close by and this photo was posted so recently too!  He began scrambling around his room, shoving things into his bag as quickly as possible - checking and double checking that he had his notebook, his pens, and his backup pens all packed in safely for the trip.  Were the other X-Men with them or was it just those two? If so, why those two? What would even bring them all the way out here? To his knowledge, the X-Men generally stayed around the Xavier Mansion, though they had been known to travel abroad on several occasions, they had never made a visit to Japan - at least not a public one.  Where in the world were his shoes? He wondered how far along in the flight they were and if he would be able to get to the airport quickly enough to beat them there - but what if the image had just been posted when in actuality it had been taken hours ago? He supposed that he could always check the flight schedules from America to Tokyo - couldn't forget to grab his water bottle, it was hard to tell how long he was going to be gone and if he was going to be doing any running he would want to stay hydrated.  Surely there weren't that many flights to sort through and it would be rather easy to rule some of them out just based upon the lighting that was coming through the windows in the picture and -

A loud slam interrupted his thoughts, his door flying inward to reveal the decidedly cranky face of his childhood friend, Katsuki Bakugo, glaring angrily at him from the doorway.  "OY, DEKU!" he shouted, barging his way into the room and shoving himself into Izuku's personal space. "What are you mumbling about now, you noisy idiot? I can hear you slamming around in here from down the hall!" 

Izuku's smile faltered a little bit at the verbal assault, but he resisted the urge to shrink into himself and give into Bakugo's intimidation.  "O-oh, hi there, I was just getting ready to go out, and ahh. . . " He stuttered, his voice wavering a bit before he managed to school it back into a steady cadence.  He shook himself a bit, clearing the racing thoughts from his mind before his smile returned full force. Honestly, not even Bakugo's antics were going to bother him today.  He wasn't about to let anything short of a villian attack snatch this rare shred of happiness away from him. Though honestly, if that were to happen maybe the American super heroes would have to step in to save everyone and he would get to see their quirks in action and up close and - judging by the darkening expression on Bakugo's face, he was off and mumbling again.  He gave his old friend a nervous smile and quickly but gently pushed him aside, darting out into the hall before Bakugo had a chance to react at him overstepping his bounds like that. "S-sorry, Kaachan!" he shouted over his shoulder as he began to run down the hall. "I can't talk now, I've got to get to the airport!"

He caught one last glimpse of an indignant Bakugo, staring off after him and sputtering a bit.  He had nearly reached the stairs when his explosive shout of "Don't CALL ME THAT!" echoed down the hallway.  Izuku just laughed as he ran. Honestly, it was good to be feeling alive again. 

\-----

Well, good company could only make up for so much, Kurt thought to himself as he stumbled out of the infernal metal tube that these people deigned to call a plane.  He was thoroughly cranky - there was a kink in his tail from sitting on it, his ears felt decidedly plugged up from the weird change in air pressure, and he hadn't managed to catch a single wink of sleep on the entire flight due to the random children who kept bursting into tears any time he dared to sit up enough in his seat for them to notice him.  Still, he knew better than to voice his opinion on any of it. A quick glance at his companion confirmed that no, Wolverine had not enjoyed his stay 13 hour ride on the skybus any more than he had as he appeared to be in quite the foul mood. 

His whole posture screamed "I just dare you to fight me" as he stalked through the airport, hands shoved so deep into the pockets of his leather jacket that Kurt could hear the fabric creaking.  His teeth were bared in an almost feral grimace and his eyes were darting from person to person in the crowd, apparently looking for someone to present him with something even tangentially related to an insult or a challenge just so that he could punch their face in.   It was not a particularly pleasant look, Kurt lamented. Especially considering their current role as ambassadors to the pro-heroes in this country. Kurt was going to have to do something about it if they wanted to make a good first impression on their hosts, which he very much did. 

A quick glance around the airport did confirm the existence of a bar nearby, which would normally be his method of choice for cheering his gruff friend up, but a second glance towards the clock reminded him that he only had about a half hour or so before Xavier arrived to greet them with some of the Japanese heroes.  Probably best not to be smelling of alcohol and cigars when that happened - the Professor could be rather serious about these things. Kurt considered his options, looking around the terminal. He could tell that there were informational boards hung all around the place, but the English translations were not particularly helpful. . . Maybe a stop in one of the regular restaurants for a bite to eat would help to perk him up?

Logan shouldered his way past Kurt, stomping his way over to the rows of hard plastic chairs that lined the terminal waiting areas.  "Elf, leave it." He grumbled as he settled moodily into one of the horribly uncomfortable looking chairs. Seriously, what did these places have against style and comfort?  Kurt found the whole thing to be an assault on his senses as well as his way of life. "The old man will be here soon," Logan continued, giving Kurt a bit of a side eye, "And when he gets here, we can get out of here.  I'm fine."

Kurt flicked his tail in annoyance, a little miffed that he was apparently so easy for Logan to read.  "Well. I don't know about you, but I don't particularly like standing around getting stared at, so maybe forgive me for looking around for distractions." 

He got a snort of annoyance in reply as Logan gestured around himself. "Who's staring?"  he asked gruffly, an expansive sweep of his arm encompassing the crowd that milled around them, seemingly completely uninterested in the pair despite their unique looks.  Though actually. . . Now that he was looking, Kurt had to admit that he was right. The terminal was swarming with mutants, some of whom sported more obvious mutations than his own, but still. . . Everyone was just going about their normal business, hardly paying any mind to each other.   No one even spared him a second glance. It didn't hurt that the walls were covered in advertisements featuring heroes with both obvious and invisible powers, all smiling at him from the glossy posters and looking for all the world like they belonged there. This really was a completely different world, one where differences were celebrated, even highlighted, rather than treated as something that should be hidden out of shame.  He wondered briefly if his life would have been different had he been born in a place like this rather than back home in Germany. But then again, he would have been a completely different person as well. The struggles that he had faced had formed a core part of him and although it was often hard to understand the sort of plans that God had laid out for him, he knew that he wouldn't be half the man he was today without them. 

Kurt shuffled in place a bit, looking around himself and trying to get used to the feeling of  _ not _ being the most interesting looking person in the room for once.  It was a strange thing to think about, honestly. It was freeing, but also a little bit terrifying.  As much as he hated to admit it, a good part of his identity was built onto the back of defying his demonic looks and it felt odd to have that part of him completely overlooked here.  Apparently, he was going to have to do some adjusting while he was in this country. 

"Would you sit down already?"  Logan griped, causing his friend to jump.  "Relax. You stand out about as much as a rock in a quarry, so just settle in an wait.  This place is already giving me enough of a headache without having to worry about you. Don't go wandering off, I don't exactly have time to be tracking you down."

Kurt rolled his eyes and settled into one of the chairs across from his friend, perching on the edge of the seat to keep from sitting on his tail, though he kept that tucked close to his body.  He could still feel the phantom pain from when someone had rolled over it with one of those damned wheeled suitcases the last time he had been in an airport. Consider that a lesson learned. "Yes, Daaaad."  He sighed, earning himself another glare from Wolverine. Ah well, that usually counted as affection from the guy. He'd long stopped being afraid of the man, though whether or not that was a wise choice was up to a bit of personal interpretation.  "Besides, why do you care? Between yourself and the Professor, I assume that there is nowhere I could wander here that you two wouldn't be able to locate me in three seconds flat."

Wolverine wrinkled his nose.  "Don't think I could in this place, honestly.  This place is swarming with so many weird smells - and not to mention the travel stink.  Has no one in this place heard of deodorant? I mean really."

Kurt laughed a little, feeling the nervousness leak out of him as they fell into familiar conversation patterns.  "Weren't you just complaining last week about the deodorant some of the students had taken to wearing at the Institute?"

"Ugh, don't get me started on that crap, elf.  Axe body spray is not a deodorant, alright, it's a war crime and I won't be having any more of it."

"Yeah, well, still better than some of the things I've come across.  You would think that in a school full of mutants, students would remember that sometimes their teachers like to bamf into the kitchen late at night to finish off the rest of the pizza they had in the fridge.  I mean, that way certain teachers don’t have to worry about waking everyone up when they are walking down the halls. It’s polite, right?” Kurt asked, waiting for Wolverine’s terse nod before continuing. “Anyway,  maybe if they remembered, certain teenagers wouldn’t be scandalizing certain teachers by getting caught engaging in rather vigorous tongue hockey at the kitchen table and then screaming at them about privacy.  _ Privacy _ !  What about my  _ sanity _ ?  For heaven’s sake, I wanted pepperoni, not macaroni!"

"Now, Kurt.  That one there is your own damn fault." 

\-----------------

It took Izuku longer than he would have liked to reach the airport.  He even cheated a bit and used Full Cowling after leaving the train station to give himself that final push.  With his luck, the American heroes were already long gone and on their way to whatever mission it was that had brought them all the way out here.  He could feel a hard lump of disappointment forming in his throat, but he swallowed it down quickly. It was a silly thing to be getting so upset by, honestly.   He thought miserably to himself as he wandered through the crowded terminal. Still, he could have used a distraction. Everything had been so. . . Heavy lately. Sometimes it felt like he was already ancient - his shoulders were stiff and sore from the weight he was carrying on them these days.  It would have been nice to relax and just do some hero watching for a change. . .

He had just about convinced himself to head back home - or to maybe go do some Tokyo tourism just to avoid wasting the trip - when his phone went off again.  He shoved his hand into his pocket, hoping against hope that - yes! It was a Twitter notification with an update from shadowsnap! He quickly opened the message, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for it to load.  Mobile data was always such a pain, but he was sure that trying to connect to the WiFi here would take even longer and would almost certainly be overloaded anyway with all of the people trying to access the network and - He stared at the image as it appeared, heat rising to his face as he read. "Hello everybody! I may be wrong, is not this UA child who beat himself at the sports festival? What a legend! Japan is already exciting!"  It was a rather unflattering photo of himself, wandering the terminal. It felt for a moment like his brain flatlined and all he could do was stare at it while he processed a few key bits of information. For one, apparently people remembered him enough to want to take candid photos to share with their friends. That was an interesting feeling for sure, but he would have time to analyze that later. For another, he had to admit to himself that he did look rather crazy when he was wandering around and doing his muttering thing.  He really did need to learn how to reign that in. It wasn't a particularly heroic looking thing to be doing and if he was going to continue along this path there were a ton more candid photos of himself to dread in the future. He should probably start thinking about that. And then, finally, the synapses in his brain began to fire again and he realized something. Shadowsnap had taken that photo of him. Recently. That means that they were around here, somewhere, and they were probably his best chance at getting a look at the American heroes - not to mention that it would be rather cool to meet one of the Big Name Fans in hero chaser scene. 

But how would he find them?  They had always been rather careful about protecting their identity - there had been a picture of a hand here, a bit of brown hair there, but they had never actually posted a picture of their face or mentioned their name or their gender or anything.  He supposed that was probably a good thing, the internet being what it was - and particularly in America where superheroes were unlicensed and only warily tolerated as it had been theorized by other fans that shadowsnap had to have some sort of Quirk of their own to be getting so many of these photos.  Still, sensible as it was, it was a bit annoying to him in this moment, because it meant he was going to have to swallow his pride and do something that always made him anxious. He was going to have to send a DM to a Big Name Fan and hope that he didn't come off as creepy which tended to be a bit of an issue for him.  Not to mention that this particular mission was on Special Challenge Mode, considering he was going to have to rely on Google Translate to convey his message somehow. 

This could go wrong in so many ways. 

He glanced around the terminal, seeing neither the X-Men or anyone wearing a helpfully neon bright t-shirt declaring themselves to be the super sneaky hero photography shadowsnap. Ahh well.  The things he did for fandom.

Hands shaking, he opened up the DM screen and sent them a message. 

**All Might Forever @heroanalysisfmf:**

Hey, this is truly random, you really are talking about only heroes, are you at the airport in Tokyo? Terminal 3?

**Shadowsnap Photog @shadowsnap:**

Yup! How did you guess? Are you also here? Do you live in Tokyo?

**All Might Forever @heroanalysisfmf**

In fact, this is really embarrassing, did you just take a picture of the hero on the right of the terminal? Well, that is me, in fact, I am a hero training a deck, and I thought you might want to meet and talk? I definitely know that I talked with our tweets indirectly but I am really interested in heroes and I think that you might want to talk about power and things while you are here or just below? I do not actually know the reason why you are actually here, but maybe you have free time to play?

**Shadowsnap Photog @shadowsnap:**

Ahaha, I assume that the performance is some kind of translation error. I must admit that this is not the easiest way to speak. . . Did you say that you are inside the picture I took now? It's wild! Did you try to get close to the child? If you like, I can try to take some pictures for you.

**All Might Forever @heroanaylsisfmf:**

Oh, I am the person you took a picture of. Child of sports festival! I really do not need a lot of pictures and in fact it's a nuisance to start as I am not used to being recognized yet. . . I do not know what is going on about playing? I asked if you wanted to see the hero and talk.

**Shadowsnap Photog @shadowsnap:**

Taking more pictures for you is not annoying, I promise! And then. . . Are you a child of that child? This is all really confusing. Let me see if I can take a little more photos and see if I can meet somewhere, though I really can not tell it anything more than it is through this. I really do not know any Japanese!

Izuku took in a big breath and let it out in a hiss of frustration.  You know, in an age of technology as advanced as it was, in an age of heroes performing amazing feats of strength and power. . . There was no reason why translation tools were still so clunky and inaccurate.  Surely there was someone out there whose quirk was language translation? Well. He supposed even if there was, it wasn't like they could be available to translate every little thing for everyone. They would probably work for the government, or doing something important.  But dang it, this was important to him!

Well, even if shadowsnap hadn't properly understood him, it seemed like they were going to try to get closer to him for pictures anyway.  So now all he had to do was be on the lookout for anyone suspicious with a camera or a phone out. He nodded to himself thoughtfully. Actually, this would make for rather good hero training as well.  You never knew when you would have to try tracking down a villain in disguise or - a bright flash of light from somewhere off to his left distracted him from his thoughts and he turned to it, blinking owlishly. 

" _ Shit!  The flash!"  _ someone hissed, the English words standing out among the murmurings of Japanese from the crowd. 

Izuku came face to face with a teenage girl, dark brown eyes staring back at him from behind her cellphone.  She had a rather plain looking appearance, wearing her wavy brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, her pale skin flushing bright red under his scrutiny. 

"Shadowsnap?"  He asked, deliberately stretching out the vowels to hopefully make himself easier to understand. 

The girl paused, looking at him. Her face was a little scrunched up, brows lowered in concentration and he could almost hear the gears turning in her head before her face relaxed, she stood up straighter and greeted him with a smile  " _ You are All Might Forever!" _

Izuku felt himself immediately go red.  "Uh! I mean yes, but also, geeze, could you maybe not. . . "  He grabbed his hair in frustration, hands automatically coming up to his face as if guarding from a physical attack.  He really ought to change that stupid display name, huh? It was only going to get more embarrassing as time went on but it was rather hard to let go of, especially considering All Might losing his powers and everything and he also wasn't quite ready to own up to his account by putting his real name on it. . . He took a moment to get himself under his control and concentrated, trying to remember his English lessons from school. _"Hello, my name is Midoriya Izuku!  My hero name is Deku."_ He stuck out his hand for her to shake, trying his best to look friendly and confident even if he felt like he was going to die on the spot from sheer embarrassment.  He wished, momentarily, for the ability to go invisible, though maybe not one as permanent as Hogakure's. 

" _ Deku -?  Oh! That's why it said something about a deck in your message and, oh gosh, where are my manners!"  _ She blurted before grabbing onto his hand, the words coming just a bit too fast for Izuku to follow which did nothing to help him feel calmer in this weird situation.   _ "My name is Kitty Pryde!  It's nice to meet you! Um, I'm glad your arms aren't broken any more!" _

_ "Ahhh, could you be speaking more slowly please?  I learn English in school, but it is hard for me still." _

_ "Oh, geeze, I'm sorry, of course!"   _ She laughed, scrubbing at the back of her head in a way that made him think of Uraraka.   _ "This is so weird, what are the chances of me taking a picture of a hero who happens to follow me on Twitter?" _

_ "I would say not a very good chance!"  _ Izuku smiled at her, wondering at the oddity of it himself.  Maybe if she had been a local blogger he could understand, but coming from so very far away. . . It was beginning to feel like one heck of a coincidence.   _ "What are you doing in Japan anyway?" _

_ "That would be telling!"  _ Kitty teased, tapping her nose with her finger.  Izuku paused, trying to figure out what that was supposed to mean. 

_ "Ah, what?"  _ He finally asked when he gave up on the task.   _ "I do not understand." _

_ "Oh uh, if I told you it would not be a secret." _

_ ". . . Yes?"   _ Izuku replied, hesitation hanging on every syllable.  He couldn't be quite sure, but he thought he had lost the thread of the conversation.  This was honestly so frustrating, he wasn't sure why he had thought this would be a good idea at all.  But still, it was rather cool to be meeting the one and only shadowsnap, live and in person. He just wished that he had the words to ask her how she had managed to get her amazing photos!  Or what kind of life she was living that allowed someone their age to travel to a completely different country, seemingly on a whim. Or to have any kind of a conversation, really, that wasn't painfully stilted and awkward.  Well, if making small talk was going to be difficult, he might as well cut to the chase.

_ "Do you know where the X-Men went?" _


End file.
